The Story

Eddie Cantor was born on the Lower East Slde of New York City in 1892
(exact date in question) and lost his parents by the age of three. Upon
receiving the news that her grandson was now an orphan, his grandmother,
Esther, took care of him. They eked out a meager existence in the
basement of a tenement on Henry Street; Esther sold candles and ran an
employment agency for girls who hoped to get work as servants. As Eddie
got older, his close proximity to the opposite sex was not in the least
bit annoying to him. He began to show signs of being an entertainer by
singing in the streets, juggling and just plain making a spectacle of
himself. He also took jobs at local businesses like Issac Gellis on
Market Street. Phyllis Rosenteur, who helped him write one of his last
books The Way I See It, recalls him sending her Issac Gellis hot dogs,
staying loyal to that product some fifty years later!

The streets of the Lower East Side were not unlike that of our tough
urban neighborhoods today. You basically had a choice-make something of
yourself or end up in trouble with the law. Eddie credited Grandma
Esther and the Henry Street Settlement with keeping him on the right
track. The Settlement still exists in the same spot today.

As he reached his teens, he began to win local talent contests at
theaters like Miner's Bowery; he also won the attention of one Ida
Tobias who lived up the street from him at 123 Henry. It was the
tenement with the nude statues out front. (They're still there). Ida was
extremely supportive and encouraged his entertaining endeavors. They
married in 1914. Their honeymoon was spent in London, where he appeared
in one of Charlot's musicals.

He teamed up with Al Lee and was booked in Los Angeles, where
songwriter Earl Carroll recommended him to theatrical producer Oliver
Morosco. Morosco featured him in Carroll's show, Canary Cottage. It was
from this show that the great Florenz Ziegfeld scooped him up for his
"Midnight Frolic" at the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street in New
York. His energy was enormous; with a performance at 1:15 a.m. he felt
he could also ask Max Hart to book him into vaudeville. Ziegfeld
wouldn't hear of it. After 27 weeks, Frolic closed and Ziegfeld put him
into the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1917".

The Follies were good to Cantor. Not only was he becoming a major star,
but so were his good friends, like W.C . Fields, Bert Williams, Fanny
Brice and Will Rogers . He performed in the Follies of 1917, 1918, and
1919. It was at this point that he became active in Actor's Equity
Association and closed down Broadway theaters in a strike to give rights
to actors. Ziegfeld was furious and now refused to have him star in a
leading role. However, that didn't stop the Shuberts, who cast him in
the touring revue, "Midnight Rounders" . The tailor scene from this show
is preserved on film in a segment of a 1930 movie called "Glorifying
the American Girl".

After starring in yet another show for the Shuberts, "Make It Snappy"
at the Winter Garden in 1922, Ziegfeld got him back for the Follies in
June of 1923 and his own vehicle "Kid Boots" at the end of that year.
This show ran for 479 performances and became his first silent feature
for Paramount in 1926. Finally, Ziegfeld starred him in his Follies of
1927.

Ziegfeld's "Whoopee" made Eddie Cantor a millionaire. It was also
during this time that he lost it all because of the Crash. But being the
prolific and resilient man that he was, he came up with a book
entitled "Caught Short", which became an enormous hit and helped revive
his fortune. (It also didn't hurt being one of the most popular stars in
show business by then.)

In 1931 he started in radio and became one of the biggest stars of that
medium for the next two decades . He was also signed by Samuel Goldwyn,
where he had major successes in films like "Whoopee", "Palmy Days",
"The Kid From Spain", "Roman Scandals", "Kid Millions" and "Strike Me
Pink." In 1937, he signed with 20th Century Fox to do "Ali Baba Goes To
Town". By the 40s he was featured in "Forty Little Mothers" for MGM
and "Show Business" and "If You Knew Susie" for RKO. He also helped
write a song for "Palmy Days" entitled "There's Nothing Too Good For My
Baby". Strangely, he recorded the song in an unbilled guest appearance
with Gus Arnheim and his Cocoanut Grove Orchestra in Hollywood. This was
one of quite a few writing contributions. Henry Tobias recalls, "Eddie
was never a cut-in; Jolson put his name on songs, but not Eddie. He
always made a real contribution." And so he did. A little known fact is
that the Merry Melodies-Warner Brothers cartoon theme was actually
written by Murray Mencher, Charles Tobias and Eddie Cantor !

When World War II broke out, Cantor supported and entertained our
troops tirelessly. He travelled to Europe and actually helped get men,
women and children on boats to safety. He got together with President
Roosevelt and created The March of Dimes to help cure infantile
paralysis. He served as the second national president of the Screen
Actor's Guild (SAG) from 1933 to 1935, as well as the first national
president of the American Federation of Radio Artists (later AFTRA) and
the Jewish Theatrical Guild. The New York Times reported that his
"loans" to down-on-their-luck actors were uncountable.

Cantor went on to star in television on a show for NBC called the
Colgate Comedy Hour. The show alternated guest hosts and when Eddie
Cantor hosted, it was the only time NBC ever beat Ed Sullivan! In 1952
he suffered his flrst heart attack. A second one a while later forced
him into semi-retirement. He did, however, continue to write books,
articles and do occasional guest appearances on radio and television.

The death of his daughter, Margie, in 1959 devastated both him and Ida.
Her death in 1962 weakened him even more. He died on October 10, 1964.